Erin O. Smith/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP Paperwork and voting stickers sit out for voters of the Georgia primary election at the Chattanooga Valley Church of the Nazarene in Flintstone, Georgia. I n her impeccably timed 2016 best-seller, White Rage , historian and Emory professor Carol Anderson took readers on a jarring and illuminating journey through America’s deep history of structural racism. Her new book, One Person, No Vote , connects that historical legacy with the resurgence of voter suppression that’s capturing headlines in 2018, thanks not only to the ascendance of Trumpism, but the state-level depredations of voting-rights foes like Brian Kemp in Georgia, John Husted in Ohio, and Kris Kobach in Kansas. This fall, I spoke with Anderson for nearly two hours about how the country has circled back to what she’s called “Jim Crow 2.0” after the voting- and civil-rights triumphs of the 1960s—and how she still finds sparks of hope for breaking the cycle. The interview has...

Today a pair of leading Republicans—and potential presidential contenders for 2016—offered some indications that the party might actually have a conversation about its future that goes beyond nominating Marco Rubio and grudgingly submitting to immigration reform. In interviews with Politico , Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky had some bracing things to say about the GOP’s failures and future—though only one of them (guess which?) suggested anything more than an image makeover. Jindal, who’s taking over as head of the Republican Governors Association this week, had lots of eminently quotable and bold-sounding things to say—not the least being that he acknowledged openly that Republicans had been “the stupid party,” and implied that Mitt Romney had been the chief dumbass: “The Republican Party is going to fight for every single vote,” he said, adding rather pointedly: “That means the 47 percent and the 53 percent.” And he told reporter Jonathan Martin, “...

Apparently we don’t need to wait five days to find out who’ll be president for the next four years. All we need to do is check out, say, The Boston Herald , for a headline confidently proclaiming : “Romney set to win, maybe by a mile.” Or National Review Online , where we learn that “the size of Romney’s victory could be the biggest surprise of all.” Or The Wall Street Journal , where that most disinterested of political observers, Karl Rove, proclaims : “It comes down to numbers. And in the final days of this presidential race, from polling data to early voting, they favor Mitt Romney.” Then there’s The Hill , where Dick Morris prophecies , “Here comes the landslide.” And if we still have any lingering doubts—or fanciful hopes for President Obama—they will be shattered by UnSkewedPolls.com, which has “The Updated Definitive Projection of the race: Romney wins 54 percent and 359 EVs.” That’s right, people: This sucker is—to coin a phrase—signed, sealed, and delivered for the...

Last Thursday evening, President Obama raised a tidy $1.4 million for his re-election campaign at a private Washington fundraiser hosted by a lesbian couple from Chicago. The event inspired an unusually tart headline at ABC News: “Obama, No Same-Sex Marriage Supporter, Solicits Cash at Home of Lesbian Couple.” But the apparent contradiction came as little surprise to the LGBT community, which has seen the president tap the “gay-TM” freely and frequently while he continues to oppose marriage equality. The fundraising efforts have been stepped up in 2012, with Obama touting the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and his administration’s refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court as reason enough for LGBT donors to keep giving. His campaign’s finance director, Rufus Gifford, is gay, and its finance committee, which had one gay member in 2008, was reported last year to have 15. In addition, the campaign has assembled a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Council with donors...